When the Splendid Splinter Met the Babe

After Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams died in 2002, his daughter Claudia found herself responsible for several storage lockers stuffed with pieces of her father's past.

There was his Silver Bat Award from 1957—the year he hit .388 at age 39. There was the flight log book from his years as a fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War. There was the baseball signed in blue ink, "To my pal Ted Williams, From Babe...